Judge: Time to unseal Nixon’s Watergate testimony

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thirty-six years after Richard Nixon testified to a grand jury about the Watergate break-in that drove him from office, a federal judge on Friday ordered the secret transcript made public.

But the 297 pages of testimony won’t be available immediately, because the government gets time to decide whether to appeal.

The Obama administration opposed the transcript’s release, chiefly to protect the privacy of people discussed during the ex-president’s testimony who are still alive.

Nevertheless, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth agreed with historians who sued for release of the documents the historical significance outweighs arguments for secrecy, because the investigations are long over and Nixon has been dead 17 years.

Nixon was interviewed behind closed doors near his California home for 11 hours over two days in June 1975, 10 months after resigning the presidency. Two grand jurors were flown in and the transcript was read to the rest of the panel sitting back in Washington. It was the first time a former U.S. president testified before a grand jury — Bill Clinton became the first sitting president to do so during the Monica Lewinsky investigation.

At the time of his testimony, Nixon could not be prosecuted for conduct related to Watergate because he had been pardoned by President Gerald Ford. Ten days after Nixon testified, the grand jury was dismissed without making any indictments based on what he told them.

The historians say the testimony could address ongoing debate over Nixon’s knowledge of the break-in at Democratic party headquarters at the Watergate complex and his role in the cover-up.

“Nixon knew when you testified before a grand jury you exposed yourself to perjury, so I’m betting he told the truth,” said University of Wisconsin Professor Stanley Kutler, who filed the lawsuit along with four historians’ organizations. Kutler, author of “Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes,” previously successfully sued to force the release of audio recordings Nixon secretly made in the Oval Office. “Now, what did he tell the truth about? I don’t know.”

Newspapers reported at the time of Nixon’s testimony that he was questioned about the 18 1/2-minute gap in his Oval Office tapes, changes made to White House transcripts of the recordings, his administration’s use of the Internal Revenue Service to harass his political enemies, and a $100,000 campaign contribution from billionaire Howard Hughes. But the details of what the president said have never leaked out.

Several Watergate figures filed declarations in support of the historians’ petition, including Nixon’s White House counsel John Dean, who served prison time for his role in the scandal. Dean wrote that Nixon’s testimony covers topics the president only vaguely discussed in his memoirs and his revelations to the grand jury would help stop “those wanting to twist and distort history.”

In rejecting the Obama administration’s arguments for privacy, Lamberth pointed out that most of the surviving Watergate figures have either written about it, given interviews or spoke under oath about their involvement in testimony that is already public. “The court is confident that disclosure will greatly benefit the public and its understanding of Watergate without compromising the tradition and objectives of grand jury secrecy,” Lamberth wrote.

Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said Friday that government attorneys were reviewing the ruling.

Other courts have on occasion ordered the release of grand jury records because of their historical value, including those investigating espionage allegations against Alger Hiss and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.